Richland County Mall will get another new tenant this summer when Hibbett Sporting Goods, Inc., opens a new store there.

According to information from the Birmingham, Alabama-based sporting-goods retailer, the store anticipates hiring eight full- and part-time employees. The chain, which has stores in small- to mid-sized markets, has 23 locations in Illinois.

Richland County Development Corporation Executive Director Brandi Stennett said RCDC has been working with Hibbett for about a year.

"We're very happy they signed through the Kroenke Group," she said. Kroenke Group does not own the Rural King building, but it owns the remaining part of the mall's shopping complex, Stennett said.

Although she could not give details yet, she also said that the former Buy-Low building has a lease agreement.

Hibbett Sports will open two spaces from Rural King.

Exterior renovation at the mall area was bid on October 12 last year and is ongoing. Stennett said there is some interior work going on, too, but much of that will be left for tenants to do. She said bids were sent to everyone on the Olney contractors list, but there were no responses.

The area is located in a Tax Increment Financing district established in the spring of 2011. It is funded through real-estate taxes on the property in the TIF. A base Equalized Assessed Valuation is established for the area. As the area is developed and the EAV rises over that amount on each property, the difference goes into a fund that supports development in the TIF. It was established with the hope that the area would attract businesses that would take advantage of this funding, which would be used to assist developers as well as provide public infrastructure.

Stennett has previously stated that the TIF was integral to the Rural King move into the mall.

She said on Tuesday that a TIF agreement with Kroenke Group will hopefully be finalized soon.